Joe Avati, comedian

"There's no health and safety in an ethnic house" - Joe Avati

On comedian Joe Avati's menu: making tomato sauce with the cousins, a three carat cake (no, that's not a typo), and fresh seafood in Spain. 

Sides include: growing up Italo-Australian, bung-eyes, and funny memories of his brother Antonio who would have turned 50 this year. 

Joe's social cause is the Kidney Foundation, his brother Antonio surviving until 42 years after having three kidney transplants during his life. The Kidney Foundation is the peak national body championing kidney disease prevention, early detection, and comprehensive patient care. They support the 1.7 million Australians affected by kidney disease by funding research, managing specialised holiday dialysis buses, offering peer support, and operating a free health professional helpline. More here: kidney.org.au.  

To find out more about the project and Savva - head to threefoodmemories.com
Insta - @savvasavas @threefoodmemories

Email us at threefoodmemories@plated.com.au, we'd love to hear from you! 

TFM is produced and edited by Lauren McWhirter with original music by Russell Torrance. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:22

In this episode of Free Food Memories, you'll meet one of Australia's great comedic exports, known for turning the nuances of growing up in an Italian family, Reed Walk, into relatable comedy to sell out shows across the globe. He built his career and a following on something simple, telling the truth about growing up in a migrant household. The language, the food, the discipline, the love, Joe Avati. Welcome to Free Food Memory.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Thank you very much, man. I'm very excited to be here. Nothing I love more than talking about food.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

We love talking about comedy and we love talking about Joe Avarti. There are people in in anticipation of this interview, wherever I said, Hey, I've got Joe coming on the show this week, they said, Oh my god, Joe, we love him. Come wait to see his next show. We saw him here, we saw him there. Is it fair to say that your comedy is not just based on your ethnicity, but but it also recognises parts of people's life. For example, hey, that's what my mum does. That's how we ate, and that's what exactly what I felt like growing up.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

Yeah, that's right. So basically, the reason why people um feel like they know me is because I got everyday experiences that everyone goes through that everyone thinks but no one really talks about, and packaged it up and put it on stage. And of course, you know, being Italian, you know, so many experiences with the food. Um it was we were always surrounded by the the the center, the centerpiece of the Italian family was food. I mean, it's not just the Italians, and you know, there's a lot of people that come to the show, but you know, of all different um uh backgrounds and nationalities, ethnicities, but they also are centred around food. Because, you know, when you think about it, you know, sometimes people came from places which were were poor. You know, there's only in and to survive you had to eat, and so, you know, you might not have gone to the opera, you might not have um gone to to to to watch sports live, so you you were stuck at home watching sports when you were usually eating, everything's centered around food. So I think people just you really relate to it because it because it gets to them and they think they were the only ones, and when they see the show they realise that it wasn't just them, and that that's what hits home.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

You say you say that people know you. Does this familiarity ever get too close for you?

SPEAKER_03 2:46

Yeah, so so so what it means is that people come up and and they're looking at you going, uh, hey, like they they feel like they can come up to you. They feel like that you they've known you for so long because they've seen you, you know, on TV. And uh, you know, I'm not I I'm not I'm not a Mick Jagger talking about you know things that are unattainable. I talk about you know things that everyone lives through. And so they feel like, you know, the most the the comment that I get the most is you must have been a fly on the wall in my house, or we must have the same nonni or grandparents. That they're the two comments that I get a lot. And it's always I always get this, oh my mum loves you, my nonna loves you. Well, what about you? Yeah? Oh, can you sign this for my nonna? How about I sign it for you?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

You and I are the same age, we come from the same backgrounds.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Without the risk of, you know, us being two old dads standing outside the Hellenical, the Marconi Club smoking cigarettes. I mean, I know look back when I look back on my years and I'm thankful for them for making me resilient. I mean, and culturally strong and and spiritually just strong. How do you look back on your years?

SPEAKER_03 3:57

See, see, my my dad's side of the family came in 1973 and I was born 1974. So I virtually grew up in the arms of a whole family, an extended family who didn't speak English, they spoke only Calabrese and dialect, and they were, you know, very much still trying to come to the shock of the fact that they had to leave Italy and live in a in a brand new country. So they were going through that, trying to learn English, trying to learn the the the Australian way of life, and so I was born into that, you know, and and so it w we were very, very close, very, very close. And and we were always together. Always. And and and that's a big deal for me. And the family life is a big deal for me, and the family closeness, um, and just having to do things that you don't really want to do, but it's your family, you've got to do it. And so that's the way I brought up, I was brought up.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Your first food memory is quintessentially Italian. It literally, if it doesn't appear on any of my Italian guest memories, I'm kind of thinking you're not really Italian, but it's making tomato sauce on the weekend.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

You know, a whole family gets together like they all do, and we would make the tomato sauce, and it was only the family, but there was only my dad only allowed the Aussie neighbor, you know, to help at a certain time. But he would just come in intermittently, he wouldn't come in at the beginning. He'd normally come in, you know, after he'd woken up, and by that time we'd almost finish. And so, you know, to to to once the bottles have been boiled and they're at the bottom of the 44-gallon drum, they're a bit too too deep to you know, to kind of lean over the barrel and pick him up because the barrel's so hot still. So, what we would do, we would get the youngest cousin, tip him upside down by holding by his feet, and dunk him into the 44-gallon drum. Obviously, there was no water in there, the water had been expelled, but he would he would dunk him in there and to reach the bottom of the barrel and grab the last bottles. And that's when Brian, the next door neighbor, walks in at that point, you know, and so all he sees is this, you know, guy holding the this kid upside down into the into the barrel. You know how comical that would have been. And they're like, we're all shocked. And it's no, it's not what you you know, because the because it's still smouldering underneath, you know, but there's no actual danger really unless he dropped him, you know. But but you know, that there wasn't that that was our health to be too bad. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

There's no health and safety in a in a in an ethnic house, you know. So this this uh next door neighbour, Aussi, was your newcastle. Let's call him your test audience. I mean, you were having these Aussies coming and experiencing and seeing these. So you were watching, I would imagine, you know, these stories play out. So I'm thinking you know what sort of stories to tell to your Aussie audiences, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:53

Yeah, but you know, it's like like one day the kid comes over, Darren, the son, and you know, I did something wrong. My mum pulls out the wooden spoon and I freeze. You know, and he he looks at me all excited and goes, is your mum cooking sauce? No, mate, no, she's not cooking sauce. She's just getting the wooden spoon out because I've done something wrong. You know, he couldn't get there, he didn't understand that, you know. But you also, you kind of also when when you it was every Monday is when I really felt like I like I was like I always questioned my Italian-ness. Because every Monday is when I questioned it because I'd go to school and I'd wonder if the other kids in the school had the same experiences, you know, where we had to go and use it for Kumari, and we were told just as we pulled up into the driveway, don't touch the biscuits, you know. Or or I don't know if you got this one, don't you know Kumari's got a bung eye, don't look at a bung eye. And then you get in there, and both of them were bung eyes. So which one don't I look at, you know? Right? And so I'm I'm staring at Kumati's bung eye. And and we would, you know, and don't touch the biscuits. And of course, then she'd get the trade, she'd shove them under your nose, you know, you like an ubiscot, to which one you like it. And I'm looking at my mum and she's like, I'm gonna touch the biscuits. And then, of course, your mum feels bad, and then she turns to you and says, Have an ubiscot, that's all right, have an ubiscot. And you're like, in the car. In the car, you're right, mate? In the car, you know, she was gonna kill you for even looking at the biscuit. And then you, you know, she goes, and and for the people who are watching who are not ethnic, you gotta understand, we could have died for a biscuit. I mean, that's how fragile our life was. I could I I wouldn't be here doing this interview, I'd be dead, and on my tombstone I'd be like, here lies little Joe Avati, he died Beno Biscotto. Well, I could just for a biscuit, it could have ended my life. You know, that's that's how fragile our life was growing up.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

So, but let's look at let's look at growing up Italian. You know, while it all sounds like fun and games, the reality was we grew up in worlds, two very different worlds, and somehow they had to come together and we had to move forward with this.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

You spoke you spoke before earlier about how families, your families come to this country not long after you were born. So the whole thinking is they came to this country with the values and the ideas that from the mother country.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

And they held on to them for for decades. Yeah. And while the mother country's values moved forward, we didn't.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

We we lived in a time warp, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

So how did you manage that?

SPEAKER_03 9:44

Well, like everyone else, you know, then then you start to realise that it's not just you who goes through this, that everyone else. Well, firstly you realize it because your cousins, you're close with your cousins, right? And so you go, well, they you think, oh, maybe it's just our family. And then you start mixing with other families and start going to school, and you start to see that it's other people. And then you, you know, there's a part of you that's embarrassed about it for a while, you know, and then you start to embrace it. Because you know, we grew up, we didn't feel that we were entirely Australian, right? Like, oh, the Aussies do that. And then, especially when you start to go to Italy, you realise, well, I'm not Italian, I don't do what they do. Or you got visitors that would come from Italy, and you would think, oh, they've been very different to the way that we are, because as you said, they've moved on. You know, we were stuck with parents and grandparents or or relatives who came here for five minutes. They were here only for for five years. That's it. We're going there, we're making our money, we're coming back. And of course, and no one ever went back. And so because of that, we came to the realization that we were stuck here. And for a long time it was us versus them. But the more and more I went to Italy, the more I realized that I'm not Italian. And more the more I realize I'm Italo Australian, and there's a difference, you know. And I I get I get abused online by Italians, by no one else but except for Italians. Not all of them, a lot of them like what I do, but I get abused by Italians saying you're not Italian, don't call yourself Italian, or we're sick and tired of all you Americans calling yourself Italian because they think we're all American. Any anyone who makes fun of Italy is a is a is an American for them. Yeah, it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were one of the first English-speaking comedians to tour Italy. Is that right? There's a statistic around that.

SPEAKER_03 11:36

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, not a hundred percent. Yeah. So I toured in Milan, I did Rome, I did a few shows in Calabria, and I was the first one to do um New Zealand, the first one to do Belgium. Uh, you know, obviously I've done a lot of work in Canada or in America, all over England, not just London, like all over England.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

So, how did the Italians respond to your comedy?

SPEAKER_03 11:59

When they come to a show, they know what they're expecting. So nobody what I figured out is that nobody buys a ticket to a show unless they know what you do. No one's being dragged there going, oh, what's this about? Right? Um, and and you know what, and and and a lot of them speak English now. So, especially and there's a lot of expats who live there, there's a lot of them who speak English, and so they know um, they know what's happening, they know what to expect. Um, I found this, I found this. I I need to read this to you. This is really, really interesting, right? So there's a there's a syndrome, is it's called the Stockholm Syndrome. Okay, so the definition of the Stockholm Syndrome is a psychological coping mechanism where captives or abuse victims develop positive feelings, empathy, or loyalty towards their captors or abusers, or basically every kid of immigrants. Really, that's what you know we we end up doing. I mean, you know, we were we were shit scared, we were like, uh, you know, your old man would look at you, you fear them, you knew you were going to get in trouble, but you never spoke bad about them, and you just did what you were told. That's you know, we we you know that we we basically every wad kid lived the the the Stockholm syndrome, really. You know, when I heard about it, I go, hey, it's you know, this is fascinating, this is our life.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

But we made it through. But we made it through. So, Joe, you said earlier that your uh your calabrese. Tell us a bit a little bit about the calabreses. What are they like as people?

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Um they're they're naturally warm people, you know. They're we're we we've got the the um reputation of being hard-headed, which we are. They're a little bit scarier, I think, than Sicilians. There's always that Sicilian Calabrese rivalry. But you know, the definition of a Sicilian is a Calabresi guy who can swim really well, right? Because he had to get over over there somehow. Um I don't know. We were kind of we we we were we were sort of tainted as the poorer cousin. And of course in Italy, you know, they don't like the the northerners the the the north part of Italy tries to detach itself from the southern part of Italy, right? That's a big thing, you know. So they call us Terroni, people from the earth, because we were farmers and you know we were people from the earth, and they were very different. There's a big there's a real big divide in Italy about that. But I don't think in Australia that divide it came over with the Italians who came here because they knew that, but within us, um it was always at Galabriensis to see their rivalry in Australia, but you know, when when it came to beating up against the Aussies, we were just Italian, right? Um But it's a nice place, Calabria is nice, it's not as developed as Ticily is, but there's so much to explore in Calabria, and I think it's I think so. You know how Pulia now has come up as as a place to visit, you know, and it wasn't, you know, 15 years ago. Calabria is the next place to visit, you know. I mean, and we've been there because we've been there so many times. I did a promo for the Cabrian government last year promoting Calabria to the world, and there's so many hidden treasures in Calabria. It's a that's a beautiful place, but the people are simple, you know, they're not that over-the-top kind of vibe, you know, they're not show-offs as much.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Let's go to your second memory, which is the three carat cake. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Yeah, so so when I proposed to my wife, I thought, how am I gonna do this? I I had the diamond, but I didn't have the ring made up. And I thought, well, you know, I'm not gonna I I really kind of want to do it now. I'm not gonna have time to get the ring made up. So what I'll do is I'll I'll put uh I'll I'll make a cake and I'll put the diamond in some parchment paper and put it into the cake. Like the Greek New Year's cake. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I don't know the Greek New Year's cake, but but like so you and I I you've got to dig it out, right? And luckily, I'm thinking diamond, you know, like can resist anything. Luckily, I spoke to where I bought the the people who were making the ring, and I told them this idea, and they go, Oh my god, don't bake the ring, don't bake the diamond in in the oven, you idiot. Right? So I was actually gonna put the diamond in parchment paper and hide it in the the mix and you know, and let her find it. And thank goodness I didn't like an idiot. Can you imagine? I bought this three carat diamond ring and it would have turned into three carats. It would have just m-I don't know what would have happened to it. You know, I'm thinking a diamond. Yeah, they use diamonds to cut glass. Had you ever have you had baked before? Um, yeah, a little bit. I'm not really a big bake, I'm more of a just an improv cooking guy. Although I've got a really good background for it because I'm a food scientist. So I'm a food scientist with an honest degree, and then because I did really well, I got poached by Streets Ice Cream as soon as I got out of uni to work for them, and I helped develop one of the magnum ice cream flavours for them as well as children's products and so on. So, yeah, that's my claim to fame. So when it comes to baking, I should be really good at it because food science is is very precise. You know, you you're talking about measurements um to the gram, to the point zero of a gram, uh, and and and that's what baking is really. Baking, you know, I'm sure your your listeners know more than me. You know, you have to be you can't just say a little bit of this and a bit of that. It's that doesn't work. Ah, well, whisk it this smart, it's got to be precise. And so that's what I don't like about it, but because I like to just freestyle when I'm cooking. But um, so yeah, but I but I baked a few times, uh, and that was one of the times I thought, let me just do this because it's a little bit different and a little bit special, you know. I mean, I couldn't put the diamond in some pork belly, which isn't what I normally like to cook.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

How did she find it in the end?

SPEAKER_03 17:47

So what did she how was you like well, because I made sure, well, because then I put it in there, like it was one of those cakes you kind of open up and all these chocolates and stuff come out. I can't remember how I did it about um so I made sure that I kind of turned the cake around so she was facing where she was gonna take her first spoonful from. And um and then she goes, What's this? Like, because she saw the the parts from paper and she was about to throw it in the bin. I'm going, No, no, no, don't throw it, open it up, and it said, and will you marry me? And she did. And she did. Yeah. Poor thing. And I feel sorry for her. And um, you know, it's probably the most romantic thing we've ever done. I don't think we've ever done, we're not, you know, that kind of really lovy, mushy, you know, kind of by, but you know it was yeah, I think it was nice in the time. She cried she had a little cry. And I and I and I said she had a cry, and I go, Well, yeah, what's the answer? You know, you haven't said anything. Because I just wrote into the parchment paper, will you marry me? I'm pretty sure I've got it somewhere. I'm a very sentimental guy, I would have kept it. She wouldn't have kept it. I would have kept it. She just kept the ring.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Sentimental but not my chic. Yeah, she goes, I'll have the diamond, you can have the message. I want to get into the guts of of of growing up and who we were before we became cool, before the you know, before Australia saw us as cool, and I'm gonna bring in you know, I'm gonna bring in the the Italians, the Greeks, the Spanish, the Balkans, the Lebanese people, anyone who was not white effectively. Yeah. Um, the Wagslur hurt us. Let's not let's not walk away from that and and and it really hurt. There's a generation of us who were really just wounded and stabbed from every every angle. But today, Joe, and in your material, we've managed to reclaim it with pride. But despite all this, it was hard, let's not deny any of it. Um, but despite all of this, your punchlines never ever aim down, even in the chaos, and you know, if there is any residual, let's call it, you know, trauma, there's a dignity beneath the stuff that you do. Why do you think people feel so seen in your stories?

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Um, I guess because it makes them belong. Okay, so when we were growing up, we didn't feel Italian. We didn't, well, we fought felt Italian until we went to Italy. Then we go, we're not really Italian. We don't feel Australian. So who are we? So we are uh, and like like we are the Canadians, I like that, the Americans, the you know, the the Brits, we we f we are in this middle ground, right? And no one identified what that middle ground was. So like along comes this comedian, does all this very specific root uh routines about growing up Italian, about growing up, you know, the son of an immigrant in Australia, and people could relate to it, and they w they had an aha moment. They went, ah, that's who we are, that's where we belong.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

This guy has defined So we weren't the only ones going through this. It wasn't a personal thing.

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Right. And so when you can when you when you can make someone feel that they belong, that they've that they've found their identity, that's a big deal. And so and w when they when they look back and they realize that it was you who made them feel that, or a particular uh memory that made them feel that, or an occasion that made them feel that, or a sense of pride that made them feel that they have an affinity to you for a very, very long time. And so that's why I think that people, you know, resonated and could relate, and that's why my work has been able to be a big part of people's lives. Because it did it, it did it to a lot of people. The same way, the same way that I would listen to George Myers. Michael as a teenager, and I listen back now and go that Faith album I replayed a million times, and that Faith album was my entire youth, right? And so when I think of George Michael, I just look at him in awe, thinking, and you know, and now I'm getting my son to listen to. My son loves 80s music. And so I, you know, we listen to Michael Jackson and and um we listen to Queen, and um and I said, we've got to start listening to George Michael, right? So we started with Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, then we went on to Fates, and you know, we're moving on. And and I'm now listening back to it, getting the same emotions, bringing back the same emotions that I felt when I was 16, listening to it. Right? And you know, I'm 52, so well, almost 52. So, so see how you know, 30 something years ago that made me, you know, well 20, you know, 28, 29 years ago, whatever it was, made me feel that same way. I'm feeling it now, listening to the music. And so that's why, you know, when people listen to the gags or they they see you, that brings them back to that time where they went, ah, that's who I am.

SPEAKER_00 23:11

And Joe, that album in particular, that Faith album, because that was exactly I I know I was talking about it the other day, and I and I still have the vinyl, but that came out just on the big well, sort of somewhere at the very early stages of my puberty, you know, of of you know, that that middle high school. So becoming a man and um and trying to work out who I was, you know, sexuality aside, but who I was as an ethnic man in a white-dominated country, I had this voice of George Michael that gave me a space. It was he made me feel like I belong. Is that is is that what you felt as well?

SPEAKER_03 23:50

Yeah, absolutely I did. And and and then, you know, like I remember it was January 1988 when I first um when I first bought the album. And I'm I know exactly where I bought it. I was at my nonness house in Moorbank. I went to the Moorbank Plaza, I went to the record shop, I bought it, I listened to it, you know, and and that's what George Michael made me feel. And then of course, when George Michael came out, right, he was, you know, that's what he meant. I mean, he meant that to to a lot of straight, you know, teenagers. Imagine what he meant to for the gay community, yeah. Oh, huge. It was a big deal.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Fresh seafood in San Sebastian is your third food memory. Why does this one kind of you know put a fire under your belly?

SPEAKER_03 24:33

Well, firstly, I love Saint Sebastian, it's my favorite place to eat. I've been there four times. Um, it's just it just takes you back to simplicity and how because in San Sebastian or in Spain in general, you you know, the the the the everyone's trying to invent these these these bite-sized, you know, flavor bombs, and and it's all about that. So we went to a little fishing village and we ate in a restaurant that was sitting on top of the o of the water, and they would pull up this crate, and in the crate had whatever you wanted to eat. And so we had a f a seafood platter like any else. We had lobster, we had crabs, we had prawns, we had oysters, but every single one of those was at an elevated level. It was it was it was elevated, the flavor was elevated more than any other place. Now, this has got nothing to do with adding extra ingredients. This was just raw, you know, maybe a little bit of lemon, right? It was just raw, but that rawness in the o from the ocean immediately coming out and having it just was like wow. And and it just and it hit home to me that you don't need to you don't need to go to all this trouble of creating all these flavors, they're right there. That's what it taught me.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

That's talk about the seafood platters at the wedding, at the weddings at the Concordora at the Mediterranean Centre, and when they came out and what they were a measure of. Do you remember those?

SPEAKER_03 26:06

Well, do you remember that after the after the whole meal was done, then they'd bring out the prawns right at the end of the night, you know? It was just like to say, I've got a little bit of money, I've made it, you know, we can afford the prawns at the end of the night. But the prawn, the prawn cocktail at at at um at Concord was a big deal, you know? That prawn cocktail, you know, loved it. That shredded lettuce, three prawns, you know, the mayonnaise, whatever. There was just a, you know, you knew that you were gonna get that. You knew you were gonna get that, you were gonna get Ricky Daniele singing Tiamo, and you were gonna get um the Mexican guy who used to, you know, remember the Mexican guy who used to um comb his moustache? Rodriguez, whatever his name. And he'd say, I'm gonna sing a song about mudgy. How mudgy is the dog in the window. Everyone knew the the act by that. You know, they when you went to the Concordor, you got Ricky Danieli with his wig, God rest him, soul, you know, uh, lovely guy, and then and Rodriguez. That guy, that guy paid off seven houses doing that act. How mudgy's the dog in the window.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Do you remember that guy? I do remember him. You you've chosen the kidney foundation as your social cause. Yeah. Why have you chosen this organization?

SPEAKER_03 27:24

Yeah, because my brother, my brother um had tree transplants. He passed away at 42. He got sick when he was young, and we lived in and out of um hospitals for 37 years. Uh, I think three of those were in Christmas were in hospital as well. Uh so the kidney foundation is very dear to us, and um and it's something that, you know, I mean, they they gave so much to to my brother and helped him live for for for most of his friends who who had kidney failure from a young age passed away at around about 30. And my brother lasted 42 years, they really looked after him. And like I said, he had three transplants. No one has three transplants, it's very rare. It's like the you know, the Roger Federer of of of transplants, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Who was your brother Anthony in the Avati family?

SPEAKER_03 28:08

Well, he was it was a big part of everyone's life in our in our in our family because he he wasn't well and so you know he got that little bit of extra special treatment. So he meant a lot to a lot of people, right? Um he was a glue in many ways. Um, you know, he was in and out of hospital a lot, so you know, we got to see him in in compromising situations. He died a couple of times as well, um, during operations. So so there was it was it was it was a big deal for us. You know, my brother was a big deal, you know, and everyone was a lot of it was a lot of focus on him. But you know, he was he was a really smart guy, funny guy, and we yeah, we fought like a lot of brothers do, but you know, we loved each other so much, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

There's a wonderful story, remarkable and wonderful story of him being in a car accident.

SPEAKER_03 29:04

Yeah, so so my brother had to help people, always having to help people. So it was a Monday night, he was doing his dialysis, and it was raining. I remember it was just bucketing down. And he finished his dialysis at about 10 o'clock at night, and he said, Oh, I've gotta go, I've gotta go. I said, Where are you going? You know, you've just finished, you know, it's it's and he was doing it by himself. So, you know, it's it's a bit of a task. It was at home, so there was no nurses or anything, and so he gets himself off, which is a process of getting needles out of your leg and and so on, without going into too much unnecessary detail for the for the viewers. Anyway, so he leaves and he says, I've got to go to help this French couple who've just arrived who I met in a bar, and they and they just arrived in Australia, I'm gonna help them getting a job. I go, Well, mate, you haven't even got a job, you know, like you know, this poor guy couldn't work at the time. So I was smoking back then, and I go out onto the balcony, have a cigarette, come in, and and my phone goes off. I must have missed a call. And it was the emergency department. Now, you gotta understand, we'd been in and out of emergency and hospitals for years, for for decades. And now I'm getting this call on a Monday night at 11:30 to tell me my brother's in emergency. Like, Anthony, what the you know, like you haven't had enough hospital, mate? You know, and he what he'd done. He was going down, heading towards King's Cross, you know, where it's sort of uh after Hyde Park, it sort of goes down. This garbage truck just pulls out right in front of him, and it was raining, and he just goes, Well, what am I gonna do? Am I going to hit the tires? Am I gonna go under? What am I gonna do? And he just he said, I aimed for the tires, I let my hands off the steering wheel, bang, hits this truck, had to be cut out of the car. And one of the most annoying things was when I had to ring my mum and dad to get pick him up, like it's not as if, you know, enough that they've had to deal with my brother in hospitals all the time. He's in hospital again for an accident. When I get there, I didn't see he had left and he put on one of my favourite t-shirts, which had to be cut to get him out.

unknown 31:19

This guy.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

This guy. This guy.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

But his funeral was quite a big deal. Was it St. Mary's Cathedral?

SPEAKER_03 31:27

That's right, yeah. What was interesting was when when he the last few months in his life, um, there was there was a priest that used to go and visit him. I didn't like him, he was a creep. Anyway, but uh am I allowed to say that? I just did. Yeah. Um anyway. So and I go, what did he want? What did the priest want? He goes, uh, we're just having a chat. Chat about what? You know, because uh my brother goes, um, churches and sizes of churches. I said, Are you, you know, by this stage we'd you know, he knew the end was coming. You know, we we all knew. My parents really didn't talk about it to him. My mum did a little bit, my dad just couldn't, just you know, couldn't talk about the end. But I I could. And this was a funny, it's just a funny guy. He he said, um I said, What are you thinking? And he goes, St. Mary's. Now we went to school at Christian Brothers in Lewisham. Now the church in Christian Brothers Lewisham is St. Mary's, which is a small church, it's probably it's on the school grounds, it probably fits probably two or three hundred people. And I go, what, St. Mary's at school? And he goes, No, the one in the city.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

I said, mate, that's massive.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

I said, Who do you think you are? I said, Who do you think you are me? I said to him, Who do you think you are me? You know. And um, and he just looked at me and he went, yeah. And uh, mate, he filled it up. It was standing room only, there wasn't a dry eye in the house, as you can imagine. People came from all over, people came from from it was people came from Canada as well. You know, he was very well respected. Because he used to travel with me a lot, right? So a lot of people used to see him. He used to keep my friendships alive, so I'd go and he became really good mates with all my mates, and so he would replace me when I was gone.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

In the spirit of Martha Stewart here at TFM, we have a uh tradition where our previous guest gives you a piece of kitchen life advice. What piece of kitchen life advice would you like to offer to our next guest?

SPEAKER_03 33:30

Yeah, right. Okay, make sure you got sharp knives. Um that's that's one thing. Oh, look, I I I I spend a lot of time designing kitchens, more my my kitchens that we build. So when you're designing or prep, okay, let's say you're living in a kitchen right now, the best thing to do is to take everything out, see what you don't use, see what you use, and put them into you know, your prep area, your cleaning area, your washing area, your your your cooking area, and just and use and use salt. Use salt for sweet and for sour. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

So let's apply that to life. So if we're starting a redesigning our life again, we take everything out and we look down the barrel of a yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:16

So, you know, take everything out, take stock of everything. Because sometimes, you know, when you've got things stirring in your head, you can never go to sleep. You could just, you just, it always keeps on going. Put it down on a piece of paper, put it in black and white. You know, that is such a simple thing to do. And you have no idea how much. Well, I'm sure you do, but you know, the the the people out there who who are stirring at night, get up, get a piece of paper, a pen, write down your thoughts, write down what you would say to that person if they were in front of you, write down a map of things that you need to do the next day, and then go to bed. And you will find when you get them out of here and put them on a piece of paper, it just gives you so much relief of anxiety.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

My last question to you, Joey's 30 years in comedy. What do you think the secret to your longevity is?

SPEAKER_03 35:10

Yeah, okay, so basically I always try and remain current, uh, or always try and change my material and be relevant and also look at the people that are coming up, you know. So I get a lot of kids that are fans, and so I get a lot of kids who I get a lot of people coming to the show who used to be kids when I first started, who are now in their 30s and their 40s. And so, you know, the fact that they remember means that, you know, being memorable now, so to the kids when they they're gonna come when I'm 50 or when I'm 60, you know, doing this. The up the other thing is that, you know, I've managed to be able to pinpoint a time of per someone's life. I bring them back to their childhood, I remind them of their grandparents, I remind them of their parents, I remind them of a time when they felt warm and fuzzy. And and I make them belong. Like sometimes people go, I'm not Australian, I'm not Italian, where am I? Ah, that's who I am. That material defines who I am. And when you can make someone feel like they belong, and you can do that over a long period of time, that really makes you stick in their mind and heart for a very, very long time, forever.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

Joe Avardi, from me, my Paisani, the Sicilians, the Greeks of Italy, and everyone else, be good and don't forget to look after your family. Thank you so much for being on Three Food Memories.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

Thanks for having me, mate.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

That's it for this episode of Three Food Memories. Be sure to spread the plated love and check out our hundred-plus back episodes. You can catch them on YouTube as well. Just search for Three Food Memories. For all things TFM, head to the socials at Three Food Memories and at Savastavus. For more info, send us a message, head to threefoodmemories.com. Three Food Memories is produced and edited by Lauren McQuerta with original music by Russell Torrance. Nastika La Philly, and bye for now.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Thank you for listening to Pope's podcast. Don't forget to like and subscribe and take friends. Bye. Bye.